Food Fashionistas

Looking for a new career? Love fast food? Food styling[2] is a fabulous option!

Food stylists – not to be confused with false advertisers – inject, primp, plump, puff, mist, sparkle, and gussy up tired buns and stale shrivelings to look delicious, colorful and appealing. You can thank Elmer’s glue for those crispy bran flakes preening proudly in glistening “milk” (as pictured on the box). Cocoa is often made extra frothy by way of detergent (wonderful, but is it phosphate-free?). Gels, glazes, styrofoam, paint, and plenty of tweezers for all those pesky stray sesame seeds – well, these tools are all in a day’s work for a food stylist[3]. Food styling is both deceptive and legal, so give McDonald’s a call now!

Many of the articles covering this exciting career are careful to inform you that what you see advertised may not be an accurate depiction of what you’ll get on the tray! Oh, come now. Has anyone ever ponied up to the counter, ordered a Big Mac, and expected anything more than a haphazard, forlorn stack of beige, peach, and dun? What’s more surprising to me is that Americans know packaged, processed, and fast food rarely, if ever, lives up to the depiction..and yet it still flies off the shelves and out from the heat lamps.